ST. PETERSBURG, FLA.—The Blue Jays have a spotty history with messages scrawled on clubhouse white boards — particularly under manager John Gibbons — but the note left after Saturday night’s win was an encouraging one.

“This team has not won a series here since 2007! Let’s change that tomorrow!”

Unfortunately for the Jays the call-to-arms failed to rouse their slumping offence and the club continued to be haunted by their so-called “House of Horrors,” falling 2-1 to the Tampa Bay Rays in the 10th inning on Sunday to lose yet another series at Tropicana Field.

The loss extended the Jays’ winless streak at The Trop to 20 consecutive series, dating back more than six years.

Adam Lind, the longest tenured Blue Jay, said Saturday that the team’s futility streak at this ballpark was on the players’ minds this weekend.

“Roy Halladay couldn’t even beat Tampa, so obviously we know how hard it is to come in here, not just winning a series but winning a game.”

In fact, Halladay was on the mound the last time the Jays won a series here on April 8, 2007.

The Jays came close to winning the game in the top of the ninth when Edwin Encarnacion, who launched his 31st home run of the season to put Toronto on the board in the seventh, lined Fernando Rodney’s pitch off the very top of the short left-field wall — centimetres away from giving the Jays a 2-1 lead. “Very, very lucky,” conceded Rays manager Joe Maddon after the game.

For Jays fans who believe in such things, it was more evidence that the club is cursed here.

But Gibbons had a simpler explanation, calling on his team to “step up.”

“We wasted a great pitching outing,” he said sourly. “The last couple of weeks we’ve been pitching our butt off and our offence has disappeared. Their guy’s good, no question, but if you’re going to play in prime time you’ve got to win those games sooner or later. We’ve had so many of them over the course of the season and we haven’t been able to win ’em, that’s the difference. Big hits, big time, got to step up.”

With the loss, the Jays’ record in one-run games drops to 15-21. They were 0-for-5 with runners in scoring position. The Rays, meanwhile, are 20-17, and just 1.5 games back of first place in the AL East.

While the Jays starting pitching has been its biggest problem all season — the starting staff holds the second-worst ERA in the majors at 5.04 — they have been getting better performances of late.

Todd Redmond, the 28-year-old minor-league call-up, continued that trend on Sunday, holding the Rays to just four scattered hits and a single run through six innings — a first-inning homer to the Rays’ all-star third baseman Evan Longoria.

The Jays have received more than they could have ever expected from Redmond, who was claimed off of waivers this spring and has a 3.28 ERA in seven starts.

“Shoot, Red’s been great since he stepped into that role,” Gibbons said.

Redmond, who grew up here in St. Pete’s and was pitching in front of a large contingent of friends and family, stood toe-to-toe on Sunday with Tampa’s hard-throwing rookie right-hander Chris Archer, who held the Jays to just four hits in his seven innings.

“It was very satisfying,” he said afterward. “With all my friends and family there I couldn’t have asked for anything more.”

Except maybe a win. But Rays catcher Jose Lobaton, who was incidentally also playing in front of his parents on Sunday, hit his first career walk-off homer in the 10th inning to secure the victory for Tampa.

The usually light-hitting Lobaton was also the unlikely hero two days ago, when he hit his first career walk-off hit to beat the Jays 5-4 in extras.

“They’re a good team, they play to win,” Gibbons said of the Rays. “They got one thing on their mind — winning. Everybody pitches in, everybody’s got their role and they do it.”

Maddon said his team played to their identity on Sunday.

“It’s who we are: that’s to pitch really, really well, catch and make great plays and then get a timely hit.”

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